Page 134 of Endgame

‘Aunty Lara?’ Elsie pleads, returning my attention to her.

‘Leave her alone, Caleb. Raife doesn’t have half of the female population traumatised just because they bumped into you in a nightclub once and made the wrong choices.’

Honey laughs as she pats Lara’s leg.

‘Exactly,’ Elsie says. She looks just like Ariella at that moment, with her eyebrows meeting in a little v in the middle of her forehead.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Nothing.’ She backs down.

‘Lara?’

‘We’ve had sixteen years of bedtime stories. A couple of historical facts may have tumbled out.’ Lara shifts her seven-month-pregnant body around on the sofa to get comfortable.

‘Raife, remember, Elsie can kill you with her bare hands.’

‘Caleb, we’ve been training at the fight studio all our lives. I know Elsie is impressive.’ He smiles at her and she blushes.

What the?!

‘At least you know where we live,’ Sophia says, and laughs, then yawns and snuggles into Jasper.

‘Come back before Uncle Zachary, Aunty Isszy, Lola, Deola and Bola call from their holiday in Lagos.’

‘Okay!’ They are out before I change my mind.

‘Black, you really shouldn’t give Raife a hard time. He is such a good boy,’ Ariella says as she follows me out of the shower to get ready for bed. I have both her towels waiting.

‘No way. At that age they are all hormones.’

‘He’s asked her to go skiing with them. I think it would be nice to let her go. Just because we’re missing it this year doesn’t mean that she should. Jas and Fi will be there with her family.’

‘So will Axel and Summer – and they are practically living together in that house, doing goodness knows what.’

‘Caleb, breathe. She was going to get a boyfriend eventually and Raife is sweet. It was either him or some other boy named Viggo.’

‘Viggo from her fight class? He’s going to uni this year and is built like a forty-year-old wrestler! I’m going to kill him.’

‘Come to bed. Elsie can kill him herself. She has a cabinet full of gold medals to prove it.’ She pats my side.

‘Are you still okay for Tim, Em, Jack and Ophelia to come over tomorrow?’

‘Of course – are they coming with the kids?’

‘Just Jack and Ophelia’s girls. Alfie is working tomorrow. He’s trying to convince me to open a sixth studio in Manchester. I’ve asked him to find me the roughest area in dire need of a community class and I’ll think about it while we are in Bali with Ms Pat.’

‘I can’t wait to see her new renovations.’

‘Shestillhasn’t told me how she retired so quickly after we left Singapore, then managed to buy and move into a three-bedroom beach villa in Seminyak within a year.’

‘You might need to get used to it being a mystery Caleb,’ Ariella says, laughing.

I get into bed and arrange us in our usual positions, with her head on my shoulder and her hand on my heart. I indulge in my admiration and adoration of this woman. She, over the years, has given me everything I could ever wish for, including the family I always wanted, the love I deeply craved and the safety I so desperately needed. Everything about her makes me feel complete and my only motivation is to make her feel the same.

‘So I was thinking, MrsBlack…’ I start as she lets my finger trace up her ribs suggestively. Her back arches.

‘It’s very late and I’m very tired, but continue?’ She smirks.

I relieve her of her vest and keep her in my boxers for now. There is something very sexy about the way her beautifully curvy body looks in them. I sit up in bed, then pull her over to straddle me and hold her close as she kisses me. I will never tire of this girl’s kisses, even after all this time together. I slide my hand behind her underwear and do that thing she likes that makes her gasp. She doesn’t disappoint.

‘You know, good girls would go to sleep right now,’ she says softly.

‘I know, but naughty girls tend to do whatever they want,’ I respond, and then I place my mouth on her neck and make love to my wife; grateful for everything that was, is, and is yet to come.

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